Movies - Forbidden Planet

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	Movies - Forbidden Planet

Forbidden Planet is a classic 1956 science fiction film and a subsequent novelization by W.J. Stuart. The film features a number of spectacular special effects, groundbreaking use of an all-electronic music score, and was the first screen appearance of the famous Robby the Robot. The film's characters and setting were inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest, though the plot is very different. Also notable is its very effective execution and use of well designed sets, props and soundstage scenic paintings.

Select Cast

Walter Pidgeon
- Dr. Edward Morbius
Anne Francis
- Altaira Morbius
Leslie Nielsen
- Commander John J. Adams
Jack Kelly
- Lt. Jerry Farman
Warren Stevens - Dr. Ostrow

Plot

In 2257, the United Planets Cruiser C-57D is sent to planet Altair IV, of the star-system Alpha Aquilae, to search for survivors of the Bellerophon Expedition, sent out some twenty years previously. As their ship arrives, the crew detects some immense power source scanning the ship. They are contacted by the sole survivor of the Expedition, Doctor Edward Morbius (Walter Pidgeon). Upon landing, they are met by Robby the Robot, who takes them to Morbius' home. Morbius explains that within a year of the Expedition arriving, some unknown force had wiped out the Expedition overnight. Only he, his wife (who died of natural causes), and his infant daughter survived. Morbius fears that the same fate may await the crew of the C-57D. He has no fears for himself, as he and his daughter have remained unharmed, and his house has an interesting array of high-tech defenses. Commander Adams (played by Leslie Nielsen) begins to question Morbius' technological abilities, as his speciality on the original expedition, as philologist, had been in languages.

For twenty years, Morbius tells the commander, he has been reconstructing the history and some of the minor technologies (such as Robby) of the Krell. They, the planet's natives, had all died two hundred thousand years before in one mysterious night of destruction. Morbius shows the crew a Krell nursery, which includes an "educator" machine that instantly killed one person who tried it. He explains that it put him into a coma for almost two days, though he recovered with a doubled IQ.

Morbius then shows them the planet's interior. There, a vast underground machine powered by a countless number of thermonuclear reactors has been operating, self-repairing and self-maintaining, purpose unknown, for all the millennia since the death of the Krell. The effects shots of the Great Machine are well done, showing miles-deep shafts with huge and incomprehensible structures moving up and down with vast energy discharges passing between them.

Things get interesting for the captain when he meets Morbius' beautiful but extremely naïve daughter, Altaira (Anne Francis). Nineteen years old, she is very curious about human relations. The commander and his executive officer compete for the privilege of enlightening her on this topic, establishing the tradition so avidly followed by James T. Kirk. That night, while Morbius sleeps in the Krell nursery and power meters all round the walls start lighting up, the ship comes under attack from an invisible being made of pure energy. This creature is a spectacularly effective special effect: a roaring, gigantic armless biped revealed only by the energy from the ship's neutron-particle-beam guns that flicker over its surface. Morbius is awakened by his daughter, screaming from a nightmare. The attacker vanishes and the power meters revert back to near zero.

The starship's doctor sneaks in to use the educator machine. Before he dies from its effects, he gasps out his realisation of what killed the Krell: the huge machine let the Krell materialize anything they wanted at a mere thought. But: "They forgot one thing, John. Monsters! Monsters from the Id!" Though the Krell considered themselves civilized, their subconscious minds also had access to the almost limitless power of the Machine. The race was wiped out in one night of frenzied destruction, as the Great Machine acted out their subconscious urges.

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